That’s very sad. Thank you for sharing the news.
Maybe now I’ll get around to reading Dragonriders of Pern.
Finished it - raced through it, as a matter of fact! Each chapter is about a single member of the newspaper’s staff, from the absent-minded publisher to the Type A editor-in-chief to the lowest peon of a stringer in Cairo. Some funny stuff, some sad, some a bit of both. Between each is a flashback to some earlier period in the newspaper’s history, showing how it’s changed, or failed to do so, with the passage of time. Very good stuff - one of the better novels I’ve read all year. Anyone who’s interested in journalism, in particular, would like it.
Now I’m starting Peter Bogdanovich’s Who the Devil Made It?, a collection of interviews with famous film directors - George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and others. So far, so good, although the author boasts a bit too much about his own career in the intro.
Just finished Sock by Penn Jillette and it was… not to my liking. I expected tangents but this was just a mess.
For some reason I now want to re-read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. It’s not exactly a cheery book, so maybe after the holidays. Fascinating and definitely worth reading.
Any good holiday books? I’ve just about got A Christmas Carol memorized line by line, so that one’s out. A holiday book that isn’t about Christmas? That would be an interesting change of pace.
Dumped The River King by Alice Hoffman about halfway through. Plot points made no sense at all, like a woman dying and no one questioning what happened to her baby. She had given birth, the baby lived, and she hid the baby outside (for days or weeks, it’s not explained) so her husband wouldn’t find it. But someone else found it and adopted it. WTF? That wasn’t even necessary to the plot, just something brought up at the end of the book. “Oh, by the way, your grandfather was Anne’s child.”
The story is set in a private prep school where some kids never go to class and sneak out at night and nobody cares. Girls faint and swoon at the drop of a hat. Students complain about mistreatment and hazing (and show their bruises) and administration does nothing. The prep school kids cross the street to avoid townies. This is in the 90’s, for pete’s sake. Nobody does that.
What a mess. I remember liking her early stuff, but it’s been years, so I don’t know if she’s changed or if my tastes have changed.
I know a lot of people enjoy reading Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin, around this time of year. Maybe it will appeal to you.
Conan Doyle’s Christmas-backdrop Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Blue Carbuncle” is always worth a read this time of year.
Currently reading Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds.
I just started reading this one. It’s very different and funny, and I like it so far, but I don’t know if it will get tedious.
Just finished Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Good read, brought me back to my restaurant days, man that guy did a lot of drugs.
Never order fish on Mondays.
Finished Geist by Phillipa Ballentine. I had picked this up twice before and had trouble getting into it. It wasn’t bad. Slow to start and slow at times, but not too bad. I vaguely reminded me of Sabriel by Garth Nix, although I cannot say why. I will try the next one.
I’m reading The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean. Fascinating stuff about the discovery and properties of various elements.
I just finished The Terror by Dan Simmons. Its a fictionalised account of what might have happened on the doomed Sir John Franklin expedition to find the North West Passage. Freezing conditions, tainted food, scurvy, mutiny and a monster on the ice. I enjoyed it to a point. I felt it would have been a stronger book without the monster. There would have been plenty going on with everything else and the dynamics between the crews. I also really hated the ending. But it was an enjoyable read overall. Perfect book to read when the weather gets cold.
I’ve always enjoyed reading A Prayer for Owen Meany around this time of year, since a significant part of it involves a school Christmas play. Which reminds me, I may have to reread it this year once I’ve finished my current book.
I read Herman Cain’s “I am Herman Cain” on the plane down to meet my Republican parents in Florida. If this term hasn’t been coined yet, I’d like to enter the term “ego- biography” to describe this autobiography. Most of the stories told are to make him seem bigger than he is or more wonderful, or more challenged, or more “ME” than any other autobiography I’ve read. The self-serving hyperbole mixed in with his bowlfuls of superstition (Bible verse at the beginning of every chapter and the number 45) were just too much.
What I found amusing was that he kept rallying that if there was an obstacle, he would make that obstacle move instead of him going around it. Except for when Burger King (where he was employed) was secretly trying to ruin his life. It smacked so hard of self-aggrandized paranoia that it seemed more like a tale a teenager would tell his parents than a 65 year old man.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wonderlust
I know a lot of people enjoy reading Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin, around this time of year. Maybe it will appeal to you.
Conan Doyle’s Christmas-backdrop Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Blue Carbuncle” is always worth a read this time of year.
Ooh! Thank you both! Bonus-- The Blue Carbuncle’s even free on-line with a whole passel of mysteries. I may never turn off my laptop! 
I just finished a non-fiction book, Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case, by Debbie Nathan. I had read the book *Sybil *several times as a teenager, so it was very interesting to me. The patient and the book author come across as rather unlikable, but holy cow! Dr. Cornelia Wilbur ought to have been dragged out and shot.
I am now about halfway through The Sisters Brothers, a western-flavored novel by Patrick DeWitt. The writing has an odd, stilted style that I associate with True Grit…it’s very pleasant to read, though I can’t put my finger on just what the odd characteristics are. Lack of contractions, maybe? Anyway, so far, very good.
Reading The Great Mortality, based on olive’s recommendation. However, I have a sneaking suspicion I’ve read it before. In any case, it’s good.
When Theodore Roosevelt’s book about his experiences in the Spanish-American War came out, it was joked that the typesetters would surely run out of the letters “I,” “m” and “e,” or that it should be retitled Alone in Cuba.
I’m almost through Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi’s The Monster of Florence, which is a nifty antidote to Homicide from earlier this month. Short summary: a serial killer is stalking early 1980s Florence’s hillsides, killing couples–and the Italian police is revealed to be a largely inefficient and delusional force; Preston and Spezi, in the course of writing their own book on the killer, may or may not find out who he is (as I said, I’m still not entirely through!).
I’ve also gotten further along in Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, which is interesting, but somewhat slow going. I’ll definitely finish it, but when, oh when…
Have you ever read Connie Willis? I like her collection Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. One of her newer holiday stories, “All Seated on the Ground”, won a Hugo in 2008, and you can read it onlineon Asimov’s site.
I just read Michael Chabon’s short novel, Gentlemen of the Road, which was charming. Chabon says his working title was “Jews with Swords”. It’s an adventure story set in the medieval Middle East, starring a lanky, melancholic Frankish physician and a giant, aging Abyssinian warrior who travel together, working scams and pulling off heroic rescues as circumstances demand. I love Chabon’s prose, which is rich and amusing.